4 Milwaukee Brewers Most Likely to be Non-Tendered by Friday's Deadline

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With this week comes two important deadlines in the MLB world. After the deadline to protect rule 5 eligible minor league players by adding them to the 40-man roster on Tuesday, the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration eligible players follows on Friday.

The Milwaukee Brewers have some big decisions to make at the first deadline as they have some rule 5 eligible prospects that they can't risk losing in the draft. The same goes for the second one as over a quarter of their 40-man roster falls into that category.

11 Brewers players are currently eligible for raises in arbitration for the 2024 season. That number was originally at 12 before Eric Lauer fell off of it when he was placed on waivers and then subsequently outrighted to the minors. He has since elected free agency.

The arbitration projections for those 11 Brewers players range from exorbitant contracts for starting pitchers in their final year before free agency to first time arbitration eligible players who will receive mild raises over their previous MLB minimum contracts. Players from that group who are not tendered a contract by Friday will become free agents.

For a majority of those players, it will arguably be a no brainer to tender them contracts by Friday's deadline. That's either because they are receiving a minimal raise that doesn't impact the payroll that much or because they are just too important to the team to let walk.

A few other Brewers players, however, have more uncertainty when it comes to their future after the non-tender deadline. Here we'll take a look at four such players who are most likely to be non-tendered, thus ending their currently tenure in Milwaukee.

1. 1B Rowdy Tellez ($5.9MM projected arbitration salary)

The most likely player to be non-tendered by the Brewers is sadly one of the biggest fan favorites on the list in first baseman Rowdy Tellez. And it has just as much to do with his play over the past couple years as it does with his potential price tag.

Tellez stormed on to the scene when the Crew acquired him in 2021, slashing .272/.333/.481 with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 56 games. And though he kept the power numbers up in 2022 (35 homers, 89 RBIs), he saw his entire slash line decrease, a trend that continued into 2023.

Injuries added to Tellez's woes this season, limiting him to 105 games and an unsightly .215/.291/.376 slash line with just 13 homers and 47 RBIs. Non-tendering him would leave the Brewers in a tough spot at the position going forward as he's pretty much the only true first baseman left on the roster, but with the production he's put up lately, it would be hard for Milwaukee to justify his projected salary.

2. OF Tyrone Taylor ($1.7MM projected)

Another player who hasn't quite produced as expected over the years is outfielder Tyrone Taylor. However, his potential non-tender isn't related as much to his numbers as it is to the state of the position in Milwaukee's system.

That's not to say Taylor's production couldn't have been better up to this point. In 331 games across five seasons, he's slashed just .239/.294/.451 for his career while accumulating just 4.5 bWAR. Even with a blazing hot end to the 2023 season, he still finished the year batting .234 with a below average 91 OPS+ due to an extremely cold start.

At some point, the Brewers may have to accept that Taylor is already at his ceiling. If that is the case, they have six other outfielders on the roster, not to mention young phenom Jackson Chourio who will eventually be added, who should command the majority of the playing time going forward. Even at an affordable price, a non-tender would help clear space for future offseason moves.

3. RHP Brandon Woodruff ($11.6MM projected)

In an ideal world, the Brewers don't even get to the point of having to make this non-tender decision on Friday. But if they do, the unfortunate reality is that a non-tender might be in the best interests of the team.

If you're not familiar with the situation by now, starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff is likely to miss the entire 2024 season after undergoing shoulder surgery shortly after the 2023 season ended. Even if he does return, it will be for such a small portion of the season that whatever raise he ends up getting would be hard to stomach for a player who will miss so much time.

If the Brewers want to retain Woodruff but avoid paying him a large salary for season in which he may not even pitch, signing him to a backloaded two-year contract would be a much more team friendly option. If that's the direction they want to go, though, they have less than a week to get something done.

4. UTIL Abraham Toro ($1.3MM projected)

Like Taylor, the price to keep utility man Abraham Toro isn't particularly high. But the 26-year-old is out of minor league options following the 2023 season, meaning if the Brewers retain him it would have to be as a member of the 26-man active roster in 2024.

Toro spent nearly the entire 2023 season at Triple-A Nashville and put up good numbers, batting .291 with an .845 OPS. But even that wasn't good enough to draw much MLB playing time as he only saw playing time in nine games for Milwaukee this season. And it wasn't as if the Brewers didn't have a need for a utility infielder at points during 2023.

It's possible that the Brewers tender Toro a contract because even if they still decide to move on later, it would be at little cost. But unless they have more faith in him than they showed by his playing time this season, his days on the roster may be numbered.

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